This image was sold as a postcard by the Museum in Weymouth many years ago.
It depicts Weymouth station c1857. Note the fantail signal.

 
I have a very dusty manuscript on the line’s history that I researched some 20 years ago. It covers the period from 1835 to 1914 and was refused for publication as it did not cover more recent history. Now I publish my own research but the cost of getting the permissions to use the images I would need will be too great to make it worth while.
The Weymouth branch was only put forward as a means of blocking the LSWR from a westward extension. Documents in the National Archive detail this and the cooperation of the GWR and B&E in defining the route to be taken.
 In the late 1840s work was suspended as a result of financial difficulties. However the 1851 census shows contractors and navvies at work at Evershot (Holywell) tunnel and the one at Upwey. The tunnel at Grimstone was insisted upon by Sheridan, owner of Frampton Court, wishing to preserve his access to game. While that at Poundbury led to the formation of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society.

 
Opening of the final section of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth - 20th January 1857.  Lots has been written on the history of the line, a very great deal by members here and I would love them to tell us more.